In some circumstances it can be beneficial to make voluntary National Insurance Contributions (NICs) to increase your entitlement to benefits, including the State or New State Pension.

Usually, HMRC allow you to pay voluntary contributions for the past 6 tax years. The deadline is 5 April each year. However, there is currently an opportunity for people to make up for gaps in their NICs for the tax years from April 2006 to April 2017 as part of transitional measures to the New State Pension. This deadline was set to expire on 5 April 2023 but has now been extended until 31 July 2023 after the government accepted significant public concern that many taxpayers would not meet the deadline.

You might want to consider making voluntary NICs if:

• You are close to State Pension age and do not have enough qualifying years to get the full State Pension.
• You know you will not be able to get the qualifying years you need to get the full State Pension during the remainder of your working life.
• You are self-employed and do not have to pay Class 2 National Insurance contributions because you have low profits.
• You live outside the UK but want to qualify for certain benefits.

If you fall within any of these categories, it may be beneficial to get a State Pension forecast and examine whether you should consider making voluntary NICs to make up missing years, known as topping up. Not everyone will benefit from making voluntary NICs and a lot depends on how close you are to retirement age and your NIC payments to date. If you think this opportunity may be relevant to your circumstances, please be in touch.

The government published the Spring Finance Bill 2023 on 23 March 2023. The Bill is officially known as the Finance (No 2) Bill, because it is the second Finance Bill of the 2022–23 Parliamentary session. The Bill contains the legislation for many of the tax measures announced in the recent Spring Budget as well as previously announced changes. The Bill is 478 pages long, with 352 clauses and 24 schedules. Explanatory notes to the Bill have also been published.

Some of the many measures included within the Bill are:

• The introduction of full expensing for expenditure on plant and machinery
• The extension of the 50% First Year Allowance
• The permanent increase to £1m of the Annual Investment Allowance
• Changes to R&D relief
• Changes to the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme
• Abolition of the pension's lifetime allowance charge
• Changes to alcohol duty
• Air Passenger duty changes

The Bill received its first reading in Parliament on Tuesday 21 March, and the majority of measures will come into effect for financial year 2023-24. It will now follow the normal passage through Parliament.

The challenge of increasing energy costs for UK businesses is a significant concern, particularly in the context of ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and tackle climate change.

The current Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, pledged in his November statement that the government would continue to support those businesses that need it the most. However, the changes to the scheme and its funding represent a fall from £18bn over six months to £5.5bn for EBDS.

The Energy Bills Discount Scheme

The scheme is now live and will last until 31 March 2024. A unit discount of up to £6.97/MWh for gas and up to £19.61/MWh for electricity for all eligible non-domestic customers will be automatically applied.

EBDS organisational eligibility

The criteria are the same as the previous Energy Bill Relief Scheme and is available to anyone on a non-domestic contract, including:

• Public sector organisations such as schools, care homes and hospitals
• Voluntary sector organisations
• Businesses

EBDS energy contract eligibility

Businesses and organisations must either be:

• on existing fixed price contracts that were agreed on or after 1 December 2021
• signing new fixed price contracts
• on deemed / out of contract or standard variable tariffs
• on flexible purchase or similar contracts
• on variable ‘Day Ahead Index’ (DAI) tariffs (Northern Ireland scheme only)

How is this different to the previous scheme?

The unit discount of £6.97/MWh for gas and up to £19.61/MWh for electricity is subject to a wholesale price threshold of £107/MWh for gas and £302/MWh for electricity – this means that businesses who have energy cost below those thresholds will not receive support.

This change will mean some businesses are no longer within the scope for receiving government support because under the previous Energy Bill Relief Scheme, the supported price was set at £211/MWh for electricity and £75/MWh for gas.

Energy and trade intensive industries

Eligible Energy and Trade Intensive Industries (ETII) will receive a discount that reflects the price difference of £99/MWh for gas and £185/MWh for electricity and the relevant wholesale price.

This will apply to 70 per cent of energy volumes and will be subject to a maximum available discount of £40/MWh for gas and £89.10/MWh for electricity.

The industries eligible under this scheme are varied, from nature reserves and libraries to meat processing.

If you’re concerned about the impact of rising costs to your business, speak to a member of our team for cashflow forecasting and management accounts.